


Five Times Merlin Performs Magic in Front of Gwaine

by bewarethesmirk



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: 5 Things, Jealousy, M/M, Sex Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-23
Updated: 2012-12-23
Packaged: 2017-11-22 02:45:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/604949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bewarethesmirk/pseuds/bewarethesmirk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gwaine catches Merlin doing magic and everything makes sense, even his resulting fascination.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five Times Merlin Performs Magic in Front of Gwaine

**Author's Note:**

  * For [enviropony](https://archiveofourown.org/users/enviropony/gifts).



> Written for Merlin Holidays' 2012 round. Dedicated to [enviropony](http://archiveofourown.org/users/enviropony/pseuds/enviropony). Thanks so much to [winterstorrm](http://archiveofourown.org/users/winterstorrm/pseuds/winterstorrm) for betaing at the last moment and providing fabulous advice.

**i.**

The first time Gwaine catches Merlin using magic, he assumes it's a drunken hallucination.

Gwaine is stumbling back from the tavern when he catches sight of light off the main path. It's too late for anyone to be out doing something innocent – Gwaine should know, after all – so he sneaks off the path in the surreptitious sneaking of the inebriated. He may not have his sword on him, but he's a goddamn knight.

Off the path a bit, he finds Merlin sulking on a log. This would be just another day that ends in a –y, but Merlin is holding out his palm, and above it, there are lights dancing in the air. There are lights. Dancing. In. The. Air.

Gwaine must have made some sort of sound because Merlin's head whips around, and he calls, "Who's there?"

Deciding there's no need to high tail it out of there at this juncture, Gwaine emerges from behind the tree, feeling for all the world like _he's_ the one who's guilty. 

"Gwaine," Merlin says, standing from the log, eyes wide and mouth slack in shock.

"Merlin." The name sounds vacant on his tongue.

"Um." Merlin fidgets. "What do I have to do to make you forget you saw that?"

It's hard to see him in the dark, so Gwaine comes closer. Gwaine throws back his hair, tilts his head and smirks. "You could get down on your knees –"

Merlin rolls his eyes. "Now is not the time to be joking," he says, more serious and more _powerful_ than Gwaine has ever heard. In the moonlight his eyes are blue-gold.

"You have magic."

"Yes."

"How long?" Gwaine can't quite believe it, but then again, it makes a certain amount of sense. Merlin always seems to be in the right place at the right time saving Arthur's arse. Not that Arthur would ever admit it. Gwaine digs the heel of his hand into his forehead. The world is spinning off-kilter. This is all a little too much to process.

"Since I was born."

Gwaine has known sorcerers before, and he hadn't grown up in Camelot. He doesn't agree that sorcerers should be persecuted just by virtue of having magic. Magic is used for evil, sure, but plenty of _people_ are evil – or do evil things. Magic is not inherently evil.

"I won't tell anyone," Gwaine says, unable to tolerate the unease in Merlin's eyes another moment. 

"Really?" Merlin says, smile blooming across his mouth, eyes crinkling. Gwaine grins, all teeth and bright-eyed innocence (yeah, right). 

"Course, mate. I won't tell anyone –"

"Especially Arthur."

"Especially Arthur," Gwaine agrees. "That is…on one condition."

Merlin cocks his head. "What's that?"

"Do that light thing again."

Merlin grins and holds out his palm. He whispers something in a language Gwaine doesn’t understand, his eyes flash golden and lights blossom out of thin air. The lights swirl around them, more impressively than before. Gwaine can't manage anything but to laugh and laugh. Merlin joins in.

**ii.**

In the next battle, Gwaine figures out Merlin is the knights' greatest asset. All of those strategically perfect tree branch falls, snakes appearing and horses rearing, arrows' paths bending at impossible angles – that's all Merlin.

Merlin follows Arthur, always, protecting him from threats big and small. There's a pull in Gwaine's chest. 

Gwaine is too busy watching Merlin knock over one of Morgana's men, when a sharp pain pierces his chest and everything goes black.

*

When he wakes, it's dark out and Merlin holds up a finger to be quiet.

Gwaine groans out in pain. His chest feels like something has ripped it open and replaced his organs with thorns.

"We're camping out for the night," Merlin says.

"Where's—"

"Everyone's fine. They're sleeping. I am supposed to watch over you." Merlin bends his head and pokes at Gwaine's bare chest. "I had to wait till they'd fallen asleep to heal you."

"Heal?" Gwaine croaks. "I feel like I've been splayed alive."

"You have, in essence. You got hit with several arrows," Merlin says, his fingers cool on Gwaine's forehead, brushes damp hair away. "I've already healed the worst – I just need to perform a pain relieving spell."

Gwaine opens his mouth to say something caustic, but Merlin puts his fingers over Gwaine's mouth, and it shuts him up effectively. 

Merlin looks into Gwaine's eyes and holds his gaze as his eyes shine gold. The pain starts to recede, and the _feeling_ coursing through him is staggering, a weighty high counteracting the bone-deep pain. Gwaine can't help biting down on Merlin's fingers ever so slightly, taking them in his mouth, touching the tip of his dry tongue to them.

" _Gwaine_ ," Merlin says. 

The pain fades till there's nothing but owls hooting softly around them, soft leaves under his head and Merlin's fingers pliant in his mouth. When he closes his eyes, he sees gold.

**iii.**

The third time Gwaine catches Merlin doing magic – and why the hell hasn't he been caught by now? – it's right under the Queen's nose. 

Gwaine walks into the room to see a pair of Gwen's shoes _cleaning themselves_ , and Merlin is lounging in a chair, watching lazily. Gwen is turned the other way, studiously reviewing some documents. Gwaine feels a spike of hot anger.

"Merlin," Gwaine says, hears the rage in his voice. 

Merlin jumps nearly a foot in the air. The shoes drop. Luckily, Gwen doesn't seem to notice. She just smiles at Gwaine and returns to her reading.

"I need to see you outside." Gwaine drops the order and turns on his heel, waiting for Merlin to follow him, knowing that he will. He came here just to piss away some time during his nightly patrol, but now he needs to make Merlin see sense using whatever means necessary. 

Merlin comes out with tense shoulders and a sheepish smile, closing the door to the royal chambers behind him. Gwaine takes Merlin's elbow in a tight hold and jerks him down the hallway, pushes Merlin into a narrow corridor and crowds him against the wall.

"You are being reckless," Gwaine says low and harsh into Merlin's ear, puts his hand around Merlin's neck, firm but not particularly tight. Keeping him there.

Merlin finds the audacity to laugh. Foolish of him when Gwaine could so easily tighten his hand into a chokehold. "You're the poster boy for recklessness." Merlin's throat works under his hands.

"I don't care," Gwaine says, pulls Merlin's ear between his teeth and relishes Merlin's whine. "You are acting like an idiot, flaunting your magic right in front of Gwen." His breath is against Merlin's ear, and Merlin's panting like a dog in heat. Gwaine wants to turn him around. He'd love to take that skinny arse raw – if Merlin asks, if he wants it.

"Fine," Merlin says, meeting Gwaine's eyes. 

"You promise?" Gwaine's voice is rough, unrecognisable. 

"Yeah," Merlin says, pushing against Gwaine's body, tilting his head, obviously wanting more of Gwaine's mouth.

"Good." Gwaine spits the word like a weapon and leaves abruptly so he won't do something he'll regret.

**iv.**

Arthur is dying. He's pallid, a near corpse. The only sign of life is his failing pulse under Gaius' fingertips. "Not much longer," Gaius says.

Merlin looks angrier than Gwaine's ever seen him. Defeat and capitulation weave heavy undercurrents throughout the castle. Merlin looks determined, like his sole purpose in life is to save Arthur and to right the wrongs Morgana has engendered. Gwaine watches from the corner, arms crossed, lungs tight with fear and maybe a small amount of ill-placed jealousy.

While Arthur remains on the bed, pale, sweating and moaning, Gwaine stays, sleeping on the floor. He awakes sometime in the night to the door closing. Merlin has left. He follows.

*

The moon is huge outside and shadows are scarce. Gwaine sticks to them as best he can as he follows Merlin, who is surprisingly light on his feet, weaving in and out of trees and cottages.

At the top of a hill, on the periphery of the main town square, Merlin begins to run and calls out, loud and bellowing. Gwaine doesn't know what to expect next, but what appears is impossible: a dragon.

It emerges from above, flapping its wings as it lands gracefully. It's _humongous_ , and Gwaine feels not an insignificant amount of fear as he listens to the conversation from behind a tree, his heart booming in his ears.

"Arthur is dying," Merlin says, speaking English now.

The dragon laughs, gruff and amused. "Arthur is always dying, young warlock."

"This is absolute." Merlin sounds on the verge of tears. "He is dying now."

"Well," the dragon says, snide, "go cure him."

"I've tried." Merlin sighs. "I don't know how."

"Yes, you do. Pull the power from deep inside yourself; give yourself over to the Old Religion."

"I don't understand."

"You must give yourself over irrevocably. Up until now, you've been too cowardly, Emrys." 

Whom or what is Emrys?

"That's dangerous," Merlin says.

"Then I suppose you want Arthur to die?" 

"No," Merlin says. "I can't live in a world without him." 

Gwaine struggles to remain neutral. He, too, couldn't live in a world without Arthur, his king. But perhaps even more so, he couldn't live without the King's sorcerer.

*

Back at the castle, Gwaine stays away, lest he be caught. He tries to sleep in his own bed, but all he can see is Merlin's thin, desperate face and all he can imagine is how heavy Arthur's body will be to lift from his deathbed.

The next morning Gwaine wakes from a light, troubled sleep to a bell ringing victory. He leaps from bed in barely a stitch of clothing, runs down the hall. He runs into Merlin, grasping his shoulders to steady them.

"He lives," Merlin says.

It takes a moment for Gwaine's sluggish brain to catch up. 

Merlin buries his head in Gwaine's shoulder, and Gwaine holds tight. He most certainly does not shed a tear.

**v.**

That night, after ensuring Arthur was indeed okay and planning revenge upon Morgana, Gwaine can't sleep. He's been pacing everywhere. There's an itch under his skin that he can't scratch. 

He finds himself knocking on the heavy door to Gaius and Merlin's chambers in the middle of the night. It's Merlin who pulls open the door, with tufts of hair every which way, sleep-pink cheeks and his mouth open in surprise. Gwaine wants to do depraved things to his mouth.

"I need to see it," Gwaine says.

Merlin raises his eyebrows, and Gwaine realises there's a double entendre in his statement, though he stands firmly behind both meanings.

"I want to see— _it_ again," Gwaine says, raising his own eyebrows in meaning. 

Merlin looks bashful. "Oh," he says, smiling softly and opens the door behind him. Gwaine and Merlin tip-toe up the stairs and into Merlin's room. Merlin shuts the door behind them and wards it with a spell.

Next thing, Gwaine is pushed flat on his back onto the bed, not by Merlin but by _Merlin's magic_. The entire room is washed in gold, lights and raw energy flickering and weaving around Gwaine. Gwaine's mouth opens on a moan as Merlin settles above him, straddling him, then leans down to press their mouths together.

"Is this what you wanted?" Merlin asks, sneaking his hand down to grab Gwaine's cock through his trousers. Gwaine groans under his breath and thrusts up into Merlin's hand. "You like my magic," Merlin says, and the lights snake around Gwaine's cock, _under_ his trousers somehow, a touch everywhere, a whisper under his balls, a stroke around his arsehole.

"Oh, my God," he groans, head thrown back. Merlin licks a stripe up his throat, bites at his beard and Gwaine _wants_ more than he ever has in his life.

"You could have just told me," Merlin says, rubbing Gwaine harder, faster. The magic winds its way around Gwaine, up and over, everywhere, every _thing_. Then it's in his arse, stretching him apart and he doesn't know _how_ , but he doesn't care. It's the best goddamn thing he's ever felt. His toes curl in his boots, he's panting, and Merlin rubs himself off against Gwaine's thigh.

They should take off their clothes, they should talk about this, but Gwaine can't – can't speak – not when, _oh fuck_ , Merlin is licking at his neck and saying, "I thought you might it like this." He sucks a bruise onto Gwaine's collarbone, and Gwaine lets out a moan, clenching around Merlin's magic, solid and thick and long, and he's coming in his trousers, fucking into Merlin's hand.

Merlin's on the edge, groaning, riding Gwaine's thigh. "Oh, yeah," he says. "Oh yeah, I'm gonna—"

"I love your magic," Gwaine says, looks into Merlin's dark eyes. "I want it. All to myself." 

Merlin groans and comes, stretching out over Gwaine's body, riding out the aftershocks.

Gwaine runs his fingers through Merlin's hair, leans to kiss him for the first time. It's hot and chaste and impossibly soft. "I didn't know if you wanted this."

Merlin raises his head, looks Gwaine square in the eye to make his meaning clear. "I want you." Merlin bites at the corner of his mouth. "This."

They kiss again while the magic winds its way around them, warm and comfortable and theirs.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] Five Times Merlin Performs Magic in Front of Gwaine by bewarethesmirk](https://archiveofourown.org/works/985394) by [fire_juggler](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fire_juggler/pseuds/fire_juggler)




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